Why Barbados is playing women’s cricket in CWG 2022
Why Barbados is playing women’s cricket in CWG 2022: As the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Birmingham took place today, spectators were no doubt glued to their screens for the next 11 days (July 29, 2022) .
This year, cricket fans have even more reason to celebrate as the sport is finally returning to the Commonwealth Games after a 24-year hiatus.
South Africa triumphed over Australia to claim the gold medal in the men’s cricket competition at the Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. The fact that women’s cricket is being played for the first time in a multi-sport competition is most exciting. aspect of this year’s tournament, and that’s why fans are so excited.
On the other hand, West Indies’ exclusion from the competition was a topic that was often discussed on social media. People often question the decision to compete with the Barbados team rather than the West Indies team.
But before we get into the specifics of why it happened in the first place, let’s take a quick look at some of the most significant aspects of the women’s cricket match that will take place at CWG 2022 this year:
More information about women’s cricket in CWG 2022
During the run-up to the 2022 Commonwealth Games, only the Twenty20 International format will be played and a total of eight national teams have qualified. On 29 July, the first match, which was between Australia and India, was played at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham, where all the matches were to be played.
Despite the fact that Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan all qualified for the competition based on their ICC T20I rankings, England qualified for the competition automatically due to the fact that they are the hosts.
This year, in January, Sri Lanka defeated Bangladesh in the championship match of the qualifying round, which resulted in the competition expanding to seven teams.
However, the success of the women’s teams from Barbados has attracted a lot of attention. Let’s find out how they fared at CWG 2022, shall we?
Why did the Barbados women’s team compete in the 2022 Commonwealth Games instead of the West Indian team?
Although the West Indies women’s team finished in one of the top six spots in the ICC Women’s T20I table and therefore qualified automatically, they will not be competing in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Commonwealth Games Association, which is responsible for organizing the competition for Commonwealth nations, is made up of representatives from six different Caribbean countries. West Indies are unable to compete in the CWG because it is a multi-sport tournament and all Caribbean countries compete as one body. Without the approval of other countries, the West Indies cannot compete.
A regional Twenty20 tournament will be held in 2020 and 2021 to select the qualifying team from six different nations: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and two additional teams representing the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands. The race will take place in the Caribbean.
However, in both cases, the competition had to be postponed due to the widespread outbreak of Covid-19. As a result, the Barbados women’s team, which had previously won the T20 Blaze competition, was selected as the qualifying team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
On Friday, July 29, Hayley Matthews, a star all-rounder for the West Indies, and Deandra Dottin will lead the Barbados Women’s team when they take on Pakistan Women.
